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Friday, January 25, 2008

Great Gifts: Vegetables, Herbs & Fruit - An Illustrated Encyclopedia

I am going to be starting something new on my blog called "Great Gifts". These posts will talk about a great gift I've gotten, a gift that is on my wish list, or a great gift I have given. (At least I think it is great!)

So here is my first "Great Gifts" post.

For Christmas I received a book from my younger brother. All I told him was that I would enjoy a gardening book. He picked one out for me on his own and sent it through the mail since he was currently stationed out East with the Navy. The book I received is called Vegetables, Herbs, & Fruit - An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Matthew Briggs, Jekka McVicar, and Bob Flowerdew.

This book is really a great book. On the cover it says that it is "the definitive sourcebook to growing, harvesting, preserving and cooking". I believe it is all of that, and more. The book contains historical information on the different plants, has great pictures, and has a wealth of information on the different varieties, how to propagate and grow them, maintain them, prepare them, and store them. In addition to all of these things, it also has recipes, medicinal uses, and warnings for various plants.

I have looked through this book a bit already, but I have just scratched the surface of gathering the knowledge contained in it. It will be of great help when I begin my garden planning as well as when harvest time comes. If you go to this link at Amazon.com you can peek inside.

If you can't tell, I am very excited about this book and think my brother did a great job picking it out!

For those of you who like to buy books, don't forget about amazon.com and half.com where you can get used books in great condition for unbeatable prices.

 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, My name is Regina. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy reading your blog. We have alot in common. My family is starting the journey to farming ourselves. We have to wait a few years before it can be a reality however. My husband is active duty Navy stationed in Maine. He has 5 years till he retires. He is hoping to be a youth minister, and Elementary School teacher. We are planning on staking our claim in the Missouri Ozarks where I am from:) Our family has a blog called Bradleys Barnyard Beginnings, stop by sometime:)
I plan on checking out the gardening book from your brother. We got one the other day from the library called Jeff Cox's 100 Greatest Garden Ideas. It's got a wealth of information in it. My daughter is most excited about the Worm Compost Bin;) You should take a look. Hope to get to know you! God Bless
Regina

QuiltedSimple said...

Hi. I've been reading your blog since starting my own (Quilted Simple), and I wanted to let you know I tried your pizza sauce recipe and tacco seasoning mix recipe - how AWESOME!! I am not a big tomato fan (in any form), but loved the sauce, as did my hubby and 2 kids, and my son (4) said the tacco dish was absolutely the best and his most favorite dish now - even more so than pizza. I had to use store brough tomato sauce, but now am motivated to can my own tomato sauce this morning. Looking forward to reading more!!

Kris

The Beginning Farmer's Wife said...

quiltedsimple-
I'm glad you were able to get the recipes and that you are enjoying some of them! I peeked at your blog. You have some great looking quilts. I've been working on one for our bedroom for well over a year and a half now. It is soooooo close to being done. I'll post a picture when I complete it. I think that quilting is something, like canning, that I could become addicted to also - I just have too many things I enjoy I guess to get them all done!

The Beginning Farmer's Wife said...

Regina,
I had to smile when I read your husband wants to be a youth minister and an Elementary teacher. My husband is a youth pastor and I was an elementary teacher before we had kids. I actually taught a 4th-6th grade combined class at a Christian boarding school, although most of my students were staff kids.

Thanks for the book recommendation. It sounds like a great one. The worm compost bin sounds like a lot of fun. We visited with someone this summer who showed us their vermiculture business. It was very interesting, and it looked like it would be a fun experiment for kids and useful for kitchen waste in the winter. Let me know what you think about it if you get one going.

Anonymous said...

Hi - My name is Angela I have been looking for a book like this one. Currently we are trying to buy a bit of land that we can grow stuff on and have a few Animals in Texas. Thank you for the great Blog..

regards - Angela

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